Young Heroes
by chicaalterego
Summary: Danny Phantom was just one little hero in a world of heroes; he lived in a town so unimportant few outside it seem to know it exist. What will happen to the world when an evil ghost is set on the loose and he is not there to stop him? Starts before YJ cannon. In DP: during Urban Jungle, but TUE never happened.
1. Urban Jungle redux part 1

Disclaimer: I don't own Danny Phantom, The Batman or Young Justice… or anything that you have ever seen in TV or read printed.

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**AN: This author note explains where we stand in terms of cannon, please read.**

I want to warn the people reading this fic that I plan to move whatever related with Frostbite to before TUE happened. If he is ever going to fight his older future self, then his older future self should have all the powers… or have had them, I have a complicated explanation for Dan not using that one, but I won't put it in here.

I also plan to do a rewrite of my other fic "The Ultimate Future", but I don't know whether to merge it here or put it as a sequel since Impulse (the flash from the future) doesn't make an entrance 'till season 2.

I also need to clarify something. I'm putting Batgirl in this chapter, but I'm not mixing her in the YJ universe. I have only have The Batman as a reference for her origins, so I decided she simply was stuck in Gotham because of her father, and because someone had to stay behind if the other two heroes went out to play…

Maybe she is going to university in season 2… who knows? Anyway, I shall stop rambling before you jump boat. Thanks for picking this one up and enjoy the ride!

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_Version betaed by dracologistmaster. Updated on 15/09/15_

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Chapter 1: Urban Jungle redux. Part 1

**GOTHAM CITY: WAYNE MANNOR**

**FEBRUARY 25, 05:42 EST**

It had all begun as a normal day in the Wayne manor. Bruce was out that day to take care of some little matter his businessman persona had to take care of personally; the opening of a new charity, an orphanage for children or a hospital, the young Richard (AKA Dick) wasn't sure. Bruce Wayne's young charge didn't pay much attention to the daily routine of his adoptive father; the nightly routine, however, was something that he was decidedly more interested in. Bruce Wayne, façade of Gotham's hero, was pretty boring; really — or so thought the youngest Grayson. Although the thought of being a rich, playboy bachelor sounded like a dream for most men, this was not something necessarily interesting for someone whose heart was used to beating under the adrenaline of combat. Robin, that was his second name, a memento of his parents and the reason for many, many sleepless nights.

The one widely known as Batman's sidekick was smart, agile, intrepid, he was… lazily flopping on the living room's couch with his mouth bursting from potato chips, and playing videogames.

"May I offer you something to drink, Master Dick?" The old British butler of the Wayne manor offered the 12 years old.

"Twamks Amfreds," He full-mouthed absently, soon after an explosion happened inside the TV screen. "Hell yeah!" He cheered, spitting out some of the crumbled potatoes, part of which landed on Alfred who had leaned down to put a lemonade glass on top of the little table right in front of the younger one.

It was right at that moment that a ginger-haired girl, a couple of years older than Dick made her presence known. "Ewww,_gross_." Alfred Pennyworth simply took a white napkin out of his pocket and used it to clean the salivated crumbles on his face.

A bit of banter was exchanged between the two, which lead to the new arrival, Barbara Gordon —secretly known as Batgirl and first side-kick to The Batman— to join the shorter one in a video-game battle."Ha! Did you see me kicking your butt? Am I the best or what?" Barbara taunted the younger one, who was now looking quite sour.

"I will go with _'or what_'," Dick hid his bad mood with a joke. He certainly wasn't used to losing that bad against the girl; since when could she play like that? She must have been cheating or something.

The commissioner's daughter rolled her eyes, and made a face, looking like she was going to come with another smart-assed comment, but the bat-signal sounded simultaneously in their cells, making them cease their would-be arguments. "Race ya' to the cave!"

"Wait no fair!" Dick protested and hurried to chase Barbara, not willing to lose again against her that day... Or, ever.

The two of them reached the clock /secret passage at the same time, stumbling and falling clumsily out of it as they fell to the ground in a tangle of limbs.

The noise of the new arrivals brought a faint smile to the costumed man, who typed continuously in his bat-shaped computer.

"Planning to go on a trip to the jungle?" The youngest one in the room looked up to see the displayed image; it looked a lot like some rainforest.

Ignoring the question Bruce began informing them of the latest triggering of the alarm. "Amity Park: a small town in Illinois. These are some pictures taken today, and this," a single tap in the keyboard revealed a completely average mid-class neighborhood, with regular buildings and paved streets.

"Ivy" Barbara immediately blamed, recognizing the MO.

"Maybe not," the greatest detective of the world made the image change once more, words and images matching the man's explanation. "According to Arkham Asylum files, Poison Ivy escaped a few weeks ago; but... Something doesn't feel right."

"So are you gonna say that we are going to fight _another _plant controlling freak in _another _city?" The frown in the oldest man's face made her indignation drop a notch. "You are taking us this time, aren't you?"

The caped crusader raised his blue glove to scratch his chin thoughtfully. However, he was not considering whether to take his sidekicks or not. No, he was wondering about his guess that it was a new villain. It was very rare that one of his enemies would leave Gotham City, but wasn't something unheard of; however, he had the nagging feeling that maybe, just maybe, there was another plant controlling enemy out there; after all, the female villain would have chosen a different place than some town in the middle of nowhere.

"Batgirl."

"Yes, sir!"

"Stay," Batman commanded as he pulled on his trade-mark mask.

"Awwww, but I wanna go too! Don't tell me you are taking _him _**again**!" The girl knew that somebody had to stay behind and watch over Gotham when the Batman was out… but why was it always her? She could fight just as well as Robin! So why was it always the pixie who got to go?

A silent look was all batgirl needed as confirmation.

"Oh, bummer." Yeah, she should have seen that one coming.

"Maybe next time Babs," Robin's sing song voice taunted the pouting girl as he got into the bat-plane along with the older one.

He did like the preferential treatment he got from his adoptive father… especially when it was so they could go together to kick butt in one of the few missions out of town that he was allowed to go.

Most of those involved the Justice League.

Hopefully they would be able to finish things on their own this time, unlike last time. Not that Robin hated spending time with Kid Flash, in fact the carrot haired boy was his best friend, but it always sucked to be shoved aside so the grown up heroes could handle the job.

He also didn't mind spending time with Kaldur or Speedy, but that's beside the point.

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**AMITY PARK ILLINOIS**

**FEBRUARY 25, 05:55 EST**

"So," the bird-themed side-kick trailed at some point during their travel, looking at his mentor curiously. "Amity Park, huh? Never heard of it, must be a really calm town... Whoa!"

The scenery that rose in front of them was a lot more startling than the one they had seen on the cave's computer. The size of the trees must have grown in the span of time it took them to get there & showed no signs of stopping. Soon they landed the plane on top of the relatively root-free roof of what they guessed was the school.

They could see a giant, purple-leaved, glowing tree in the distance.

It was safe to assume the mastermind of this mess was, like in most cases, in the flashiest place of all.

Once they were out in the open, they looked around to the seemingly endless expanse of green, trying to figure the fastest path toward the huge tree. Both heroes soon made their way down off the building, looking for signs of life or something that wasn't green. However, the whole place was deserted; no signs of human life anywhere.

"I have a bad feeling about this," Robin commented, slightly creeped out.

Ignoring his sidekick's words, Batman took a small surgical blade out of his belt then squatted down to take a sample of the unknown plants they were walking on. As the man made the small incision it seemed to... Hiss? Batman's eyes grew wide behind his mask as he took notice of the piece regenerating and the small bit he had in his hand wriggling. Soon after the dark night had put the moving sample in a tube —one he also got out of his yellow belt— the plants around them also started making a movement similar to a wave. He grabbed Robin by the arm pulling him back before his side-kick fell, landing both safely on another, plant, one that wasn't moving.

The one they had been on before suddenly stopped moving, but the feeling in the air wasn't a cheerful one. A sudden eeriness made them both feel like they were being watched, which proved to be true when they saw who may have been the source of the invading vegetation. A flower-shaped bunch of trunks moved revealing a young lady with short black hair, dressed in a dress, made of leaves, that only covered the minimum to save the girls decency… she was also wearing green gloves. Robin, like the teenage boy he was, had his eyes stuck a moment longer than necessary on the body of the slightly older teen; his more mature mentor, on the other hand, was looking at the vines that were in contact with her —which were behaving more like the strings of a puppet than anything else, although this ones seemed to come from the ground instead of above.

"You, puny humans," the voice of the girl had a strange echo to it. Her movements seemed unnatural as well, like she was boneless yet powerful and, as she opened her before-closed eyes, they could see a toxic green glow coming out of them. "You have harmed our garden," She pointed to some purple flowers at their feet — they must have landed on them — "so now I will harm you." As soon as those words left her mouth she moved her hands up, the plants behind her moving up as she did.

Not missing a beat the Batman took out a batarang out of his belt and threw it at the plants, successfully cutting two of the tube-like green trunks that showed mobility and flexibility that was impossible for normal plants.

The girl didn't look pleased, but she simply sent more of the strange plants after them. Robin pulled his red Bo-staff and blocked one of the now attacking foliage but Batman helped him by throwing a capsule-shaped device that froze anything in a five foot radius on contact

The ice spread instantly on the vegetation it touched, like it did the next one he threw, and the next one… and the next one. However, there were simply too many. Soon, the caped crusader simply let a couple of electric saws come out of his gloves and began cutting the plants that came close to him.

Robin was starting to panic. He was sweating horribly and having trouble breathing. Thankfully, the Batman finally got close to the girl and threw a freezing capsule at the female plant-human.

Things became still for a moment, but the stillness and quiet didn't last long enough for any sense of victory to settle in. The ice that was surrounding the girl started shattering, and the girl was soon free, growling at them as her body started to glow and her dress started to morph; the leaves started growing larger and new ones formed, making the short skimpy dress into a full body suit, that consisted of tight pants and sleeveless top, the gloves on her hands grew longer as well, and a cape was added to the mask-less costume. The changes didn't stop there, the leaves also went up and wrapped around her hair, creating a helmet that seemed to have two pairs of horns.

Robin couldn't help comparing it to Maleficent's helmet; the way the villain from the sleeping beauty dressed was so ridiculous, in his eyes, that he had thought he would never see a real villain dressed in a rip-off version of it.

He was clearly mistaken.

"We… are not calling The League, are we?" Robin hopefully asked, having not giving up yet.

Before the Dark Knight could reply, part of the vegetation started to move to form a giant bird-faced monster made of plants.

"That can't be good," Robin needlessly pointed out. Batman, never the one to make pointless remarks, quietly took out a bat-shaped, grappling hook, and made it stuck on the top of the nearest building. As he started pulling himself up, so did his side-kick (being only a second behind him). However, as they went up, the black, brain-shaped plant(?) released some round, twig-less dandelions that started floating up.

Before either of them could do anything a wall of green —more like a roof— was being formed by vines as thick as a bus. Bats reacted soon enough to stop the ascend and not crash into them, but the movement had been meant to stall them. Now the flying dandelions, ones decidedly not from the garden variety, reached them and sleep began to take them.

The last thing the Justice League founding member felt before passing out was the feeling of his finger hitting the emergency signal on his belt. He also noticed he had begun falling after hitting the button. The boy wonder, on the other hand, had been reached by it too soon to remember anything but going halfway up the building.

For both of Gotham's heroes, the world had gone black.

To be continued...

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Read and review ^_^


	2. Urban Jungle redux part 2

AN: Hi there! It's me again! I know you all missed me… well, not exactly me, but I shall take you being here like so. This is my second chapter of this story. I apologize for any errors you read on the first chapter, like when I said the speedy was Robin's carrot-haired best friend *facepalms* but seriously, who came up with the idea of giving Green Arrow's side-kick such a name? It was decidedly meant for us to get confused. Having said that, I would like all of you to give a warm round of cheer to **dracologistmaster**, who helped me fix some typoes in the first chapter —meaning the last one.

Still, I'm still looking for a new, permanent beta, one that has confidence in writing fights and whatnot, and has a good handle on the DC character's personalities and knows how to write fights.

On another note, I might add that after reading random stuff on wikis and whatnot, I decided to mix DP universes as I see fit, along with some random things that pop in my head —you probably won't notice them, but I will explain a bit after the chapter. Anyway, if something doesn't add up to you PM me (or ask me in a review if you are a guest) and I shall do my best to explain where things came from.

Also, I shall be putting times and dates like it happens in Young Justice from now on, so… I figured I would let you know the year. Young Justice starts on 2010, so, this thing being a year before, goes on 2009.

**Now on a more important subject, and I repeat: THIS IS IMPORTANT! I will have to warn you "Kindred Spirits" and "D-stabilized" are being left out in this story; meaning no Dani Fenton/Phantom. **I might put her somewhere in the sequel, but no promises… If I make a sequel that is *whistles innocently*.

Now, on with the story.

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Chapter 2: Urban Jungle redux. Part 2

**THE WATCHTOWER**

**FEBRUARY 25, 06:54 EST**

It was an ordinary day in the Watchtower, a few dozens of costumed adults walked around the Justice League's secret space station. The people scattered all over the place were, predictably, heroes part of the Justice League. The ones present were not all the members, though; the majority of them were, at the moment, either in a mission or simply living their citizen lives, confident that if they needed to be called they would receive a call from the space station; currently being monitored by one of the founding members, Martian Manhunter and one of the more recent additions to the League, Captain Atom.

It was the first time both heroes had been put in guard duty together, since the two of them were the leading, strongly reliable type. In the past the guarding duty usually got balanced by putting a leading figure and one more laid back hero —for the first one to order around— inside the tower; however, after what happened a couple of days ago when the Watchtower was attacked by an unknown, white-haired foe —whose get-up reminded everyone to the Lantern's, but without the lantern symbol or the green— their base was still in a somewhat-peril state; which is why the main focus of The League was to fix their satellite and strengthen its defenses, and put on two of their best in monitor duty. who better that the Martian —a founder member without a secret identity on Earth— and Captain Atom —An ex-captain of the U.S. Air force, part of the intelligence in the Vietnam war— to handle such a tight situation?

Probably nobody… at least none of their available, unharmed heroes.

It was as the silver-skinned and the green-skinned sat in silence, in a seemingly normal day of protecting the world, that the emergency alarm rang. With a serious expression the Martian —who was currently the closest to the keyboard— started typing and a bunch of numbers and letters made his eyes widen. Batman's sent an S.O.S; and, for once, there was no way of knowing what had happened… other than going down to Earth and check for themselves. The system of the place wasn't in full function and too many of their heroes were guarding the outside —just in case their enemies took advantage of their weakened condition to issue an attack— or helping repair things inside; which is why he sent the Batman on his own. The whole world knew that the Black Knight was one of the best, more capable heroes, even without the powers; it was clear that he could pull his weight even among the world mightiest, so, for him to ask for help… this probably wasn't going to be good.

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**AMITY PARK**

**FEBRUARY 25, 07:05 EST**

On the skies of the place that once was "a nice place to live" could be seen for the first time members of the Justice League. If this was a normal day it would have drawn the attention of the townspeople, some would even have wondered if the nearest figure floating in the sky was a bird or a plane… or what was any of the other 4 figures that followed it. But no, this was not a normal day in Amity, then again, it wasn't too much of an unusual one either, ghost invasion and all that…

Superman stopped in mid-fly and looked down the overgrown jungle that wasn't there the day before. As he observed the place from afar he squinted his eyes, using his x-ray vision to try to see past the foliage so he could spot their missing friend. The man of steel could see houses, streets and cars under the green mass, but none of those had humans in there. He moved his head to the right, he could now see a food joint with a sign that read "The Nasty Burger", but still no signs of Batman.

"Did you find him?" A male voice came from behind The Man of Steel.

"Not yet, Zatara." Superman replied the magician.

It was a powerful party the one that had come to Amity: Superman, Wonder Woman, Zatara, Flash and the Green Lantern: John Steward. All of them were floating in the air (Flash inside a green bubble courtesy of the Lantern), and feeling slightly uneasy about how deserted this place was.

"There!" The last man of Krypton shot forwards, and, albeit they didn't know what the man had seen, they followed suit.

It didn't take them long to know what Superman had found. He dived down, creating a hole in the. The heroes dived right after, letting out simultaneous sounds of awe at what they saw: a seemingly endless assortment of giant, purple capsules, were wrapped in something that looked like green wires. They weren't sure what those things were, but by the way little spars of light circled out of them and forwards it was evident that the plants were feeding of them.

"What are those things?" Flash asked while poking one of them. It wriggled.

"Stop that!" John reprimanded and Flash raised his hands in a 'no fight' gesture.

As the two of them held a little conversation about how those things could be dangerous, the Man of Steel was cutting the unknown capsule with his heat-ray with the accuracy of a heart surgeon operating a patience. Just after he finished his handiwork (eye-work in this case) a regular, African-American civilian flopped forwards and meet the ground. "Dude," The teen exclaimed raising a hand towards his red beret.

"Hey, kid, are you ok?" Flash practically teleported to his side and was helping him right up. The unknown kid looked bad, his cheeks seemed swollen, like he was a underweight. Having yourself being used like a human battery could do that on you.

"I feel like I was just trapped in giant salad bar, what do you think?" The stars dancing in his eyes made him unable to see that he was being sarcastic to The Flash.

"What happened here?" Wonder Woman asked at the teen.

"We were walking in the street when Undergrowth attacked and… Wait, aren't you Wonder Woman? Awesome! Can you sign my PDA?" He fished an electronic devise from his backpack and practically buried it into her face along with the black marker he had in his other hand.

She caught those things as a reflex, being swept away by the intensity of the boy.

"What. Happened. here?" Steward asked in his no-nonsense tone; making the younger dark-skinned man to notice him as well.

"Cool! You are green Lantern!" He marveled and then took another PDA out of his backpack. "Can you sign this? And dedicate it to me, Foley, Tucker Foley-" He then looked towards the Amazon. "As in _Too Fine_," The teen's eyebrows wriggled comically in a way he thought was seductive but wasn't quite it.

"Man, how many of those things you got there?" The Flash curiously leaned forwards and Tucker beamed at him.

Only as Tucker was addressed by the speedster he noticed the rest of the heroes: Superman, Flash and… a magician dude. Oh, Danny was going to be so jealous if he got their autographs —most of theirs anyway.

As if to reply Flash's question Tuck fanned out four other PDAs. Eyeing the heroes contemplatively. "Can you-?"

"Enough of this nonsense." Zatara snapped, he hadn't been in the best of moods after he had been ridiculed in his last battle, and it made him want to stuff this teen back from where they rescued him and pull out another civilian out of the hundreds of similar-looking, purple things that were most likely keeping the rest of the people captive. "Tell us what happened!"

Tucker frowned on that. He, like any self-respected teen, got upset when an unknown mustachioed adult dressed in a funny costume told him what to do. He supposed this dude was a hero as well, but not one he knew much about. That settled it, he was not asking him for his autograph.

After a roll of his eyes Foley recounted. "Well, to put it shortly, this-" he pointed to the roots blocking the sun, "and that-" he pointed towards the imprisoned civilians, "is a ghost attack."

"A ghost attack?" Superman echoed, Tucker nodded.

"Yeah. Supernatural beings attacking the town…"

"You don't seem too phased with this," Green Lantern pointed out.

"Well, duh! Haven't heard of Amity Park being the most haunted place in America? This kind of things is old news to us."

The flippant way he delivered those news made the heroes feel very surprised.

"That's impossible!" Flash blurted, but right away noticed his mistake. It wasn't like he could tell that they were looking over the world by a space satellite and had cameras all over the world to get wind of troubles fast and prevent them from growing too far —like it did in this particular situation-. Right now they might be having problems with the main computer of the Watchtower, and their resources weren't at their peak, but they most certainly would have noticed if the scandalous rumors of invading entities of Amity Park were true.

"What Flash means it that if something like this happened so often then what has been stopped things from getting this far before?" The bathing-suit wearing heroine asked.

Tucker hesitated in what to say for half a second. Had Batman being right there with them he would have picked up on that, but none of the heroes were the best detective in the world, so they obviously missed it. "Well, we have our very own super hero, Danny Phantom, the Red Huntress, and the Fentons." He recounted, then added as an after-thought. "There are The Guys in White as well; not the best ghost hunters out there… Does anyone have a mint?" The techno-geek was growing crazy with the feeling of "vegetables" in his tongue.

"Ghost hunters?" The man of steel echoed, ignoring the teen's side-comment.

Before the heroes could have their collective questions answered the earth shook.

That was never good.

The relative darkness they had been immersed turned blacker as the shinning bulbs started moving upwards, leaving them in complete obscurity… or that would have been the case if they hadn't made a hole to get it… or the lantern to use his ring to illuminate the place with his ring.

_'A Lantern providing light… that was ironic, wasn't it?'_ Tucker wondered inwardly.

"We need to get out of here!" Wonder Woman shouted.

Soon all heroes made it up under the bright, green sky… wait, green sky?

The plant was giving out so much glow that the normal color of the sky was getting harder and harder to see.

Then, for the first time in this story, the real villain they were fighting showed his face. A giant bird-plant creature was raising from the ground in front of them, smiling triumphantly as he rose his hands up.

"Grow strong my child, firs is this city, and then THE WORLD!"

"We'll see about that!" Superman spoke and the ghost turned to see the Justice League members standing in front of him, posing heroically as the wind moved their long hairs and capes respectively.

The enemy turned around. "Petty flesh webbers, you think you can stop me!?"

"Of course we can!" Zatara stated. "_Zaarntac ruuidomo sooic_" The magician chanted and a blast of yellow hit the ghost plant making a hole in its chest. Hole that closed upon itself in a matter of seconds with no apparent damage.

Undergrowth looked un-phased. "You can't defeat nature, you puny humans!" After he said that a being just like himself sprouted from their left, then their right. Before their eyes now were at least a dozen of replicas of their enemy. "I'M EVERYWHERE!"

To be continued… right now (I would have cut things for real here, but after getting so many reviews I feel obligated to go on. Enjoy!).

After a couple of instructions from Superman they sprung into action… well, not all of them, Wonder Woman had to put the teen hindrance out of danger's way (Tucker: hey!). "You should be safe here," The female hero put the teen near the glowing bulbs area, figuring she could hide there; after all, the combat was happening quite far from there.

"Wait! "

The Amazon turned around.

"You still have my PDA!"

The woman handed it over to the teen whose eyes widened.

"You signed it!" Tucker cheered before venturing, "Now, about your number…"

The older woman gave him an smile and flew away.

"She totally likes me."

Wonder Woman didn't get to hear the teen's out-loud comment, much less his wondering thoughts of "I wonder if they know how to fight ghosts." However, the last one didn't really need a verbal answer. Foley, techno-geek extraordinaire, decided to get his answers from a different source; so, after tapping his PDA a couple of times, he got the life images of the battle going on, courtesy of the arcade's security camera. From it he could see how the plants got intangible —much to the heroes bewilderment— then, the few blows they managed to get, regenerating over and over from the ghost's abilities, which were enhanced further by feeding from the townspeople… And there was Sam, battling Wonder Woman.

Tucker wasn't sure how it the females in battle always got paired out with each other in this sort of thing, but he didn't care; why? Because _that_ was hot!

"Oh no!" Tucker exclaimed right after what he recognized as the "mind vines" from before. The heroes didn't know that the black vines that came out of that plant could control the people they touched…

"Superman, watch out!"

Ok, now they knew it, and not in a way Phantom's male side-kick would have liked. The warning hadn't come in time. Now, Wonder Woman, Flash, John Steward and… what was the magician's name again?

"ZATARA!"

"Yeah, that sounds about right." The teen mumbled, too himself, barely noticing how the mustachioed was sent flying into a building. It was then that Tucker knew he needed to do something; so, the teen started rummaging inside his backpack to see what he had in it. Let's see, he had a lot of PDA and other techno-geek stuff, an English-Esperanto dictionary, a Fenton Thermos (one he couldn't use since the ghost hadn't been weakened yet), a Fenton lipstick and the horrible cologne that had saved him from Espectra's bugs. Tucker had been forbidden to ever use that skunk/gym-socks scent, but he still carried it as a good luck charm. It _had_ saved him from getting trapped inside a hospital after all.

Tucker knew that the heroes were getting their heroic butts horribly kicked so he had to figure a way to use the things he had with him the best he could. Then, as he debated what to do, his eyes got stuck to a poster of a incoming pirate movie.

"That's it!" He cheered and rushed over to… somewhere.

_Where has Tucker gone? What will happen in the battle? Will Danny ever show up? And what happened to the Batman and Robin? Those answers and more shall be answered in the next chapter of Young Heroes!"_

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AN: Ok, the last bit was uncalled for, but hey, I couldn't stop myself! Now, I remind you I need a beta, so if you want to know stuff before everyone else apply now!

And review! That's also very important ^_^


	3. Huh? or The UJ name got repetitive

Disclaimer. DP doesn't belong to me, if it did Phantom Planet would have never happened. And I don't own Young Justice, if I did I would have tried to make it longer.

**The last time we saw our heroes they were fighting an enemy they knew nothing about, Tucker ran off to god knows where and the main character of the Nickelodeon series had yet to appear… Oh, well, whatever I'll let the rambling for after the chapter, enjoy!**

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Chapter 3. "Huh?" or "The 'Urban Jungle' name got repetitive".

**AMITY PARK**

**FEBRUARY 25, 19:35 EST**

Superman, who had been touched in the back of his skull by a mind controlling vine, was currently punching restlessly the green dome created by Green Lantern. Normally, the man of steel would not waste his energy in such a violent rain of punches —much less try to attack one of his allies— but the hold the enemy had on the hero didn't mean that Undergrowth automatically knew what the man of steel was capable off, especially since the inhabitants of the Ghost Zone were not very well-versed in the modern superhero culture. Meaning, that not many ghosts had a clue of the capabilities of each vigilante, super-powered or not, the same way these crime-fighters had no understanding of the invading undead.

A right hook made the spherical shield quiver and a left one almost made it flicker out of existence. Before, the friendly fire had took the Justice League members by surprise for a moment, and a moment was all it took to knock out Wonder Woman, the only one out of them with the strength to somewhat fight back to Superman. Currently Green Lantern was preventing the mind-controlled Kriptonian to go beat the crap out of her unconscious, falling form.

Flash's speed was proving useless in the uneven ground. The speedster had rushed towards the Amazon's falling form as soon as Stewards yell came from upwards. As the crimson speedster hurried over, the roots started to move like waves, which almost sent the fastest man alive to a "face meets the floor" kind of situation. It was only thanks to the supernatural reflexes of the famous hero that he didn't stamp his face on the concrete, for, moving his arms in a circular motion to create small twin twisters that send small current of air t the ground, he could come back from the precarious angle he had gained in his face-plant. Fortunately for the vine-roped Flash, team work saved his heroic behind, for Zatara, the less famous hero in the group sent a ice spell that froze the attacking foliage, that took advantage of the momentous stop of the fast hero to wrap themselves around his waist.

"Thanks, pal." Zatara nodded in acknowledgement of the other leaguer's thanks, not paying much mind to the aviator's salute he had received along with it. Not that the mustachioed magician would have any time to make any remarks on the matter if he had. Saving Wally West had cost the Justice League another comrade: Wonder Woman, who fell to the foliage, hard. And as soon as she did the roots wrapped around her body and started pulling her downward.

"Diana!" Came the lantern's yell, that snapped the attention of both the magician and the speedster. Flash arrived in time to grab her hand, but he lacked the superhuman strength needed to defeat the plant's hold on his friend, and uselessly pulled the hand only delaying the inevitable for an instant before he heard an impact from behind, that he could barely hear in his concentrated 'I must save her' resolve. He couldn't see with anything but the Amazon at the moment, so he missed that Zatara had just frozen a bunch of vines that had aimed themselves at his exposed back. Things were getting out of hand. Predictably, Flash's efforts went right to the garbage, for Wonder Woman was pulled downwards anyway, and he had to let go before it pulled him downwards as well.

The whole jungle surrounding them was gaining ground quite fast. The first one to fall had been Batman —who they had come to rescue— then it took hold of their strongest mind, and now their Amazonian princess. If only they could keep in touch with the Watchtower as they usually did and as for backup; if only they had known more about the enemy they were currently fighting; if only they had brought at least twice as many heroes as they had… but this was not the time for 'if's, it was the time to pray for a miracle. Sadly, things got worse before they became better. Superman managed to punch his way through the green dome that kept him apart from the dark-skinned lantern. John send all the will he could muster to the ring to re-build the green dome, but it only replied him with a flicker of green light, much too weak to protect him from the man of steel's right hook.

Fortunately for the good guys, the weak dome had absorbed most of the impact from Superman's attack, making the lantern only plumber to the ground in a half-dead state instead in of completely so. Unfortunately the mind-controlled hero followed suit on a dive to finish off the job. In the least moment, Zatara managed to redirect the thunder spell he had chanted towards Superman, who took it in full, halting in mid-air and yelling in excruciating pain. As the thunder did it's thing, Zatara chanted yet another spell, and soon a pair of giant scissors appeared behind the —literally— shocked Kriptonian, then moved themselves upwards to cut the green whip that glued itself to the back of his neck, cutting it —the whip, not the neck— and successfully freeing the flying mass of muscles.

"What…?" Superman began, then noticed the number of his friends was down to two. The move that the magician had pulled was quite impressive, but it needed all his focus, so none of it was spared for the Lantern that met a similar fate that Wonder Woman's. The "greatest hero" then took a deeper notice to the state of his remaining teammates: Flash's costume had been ripped in several places, and was wobbling quite obviously as a faint stream of blood stained one side of his right leg; Zatara didn't seem to be too worse for the wear, but the thick droplets of sweat running down his currently pale temple hinted that he was reaching the end of his physical stamina… that and he had a bit of dried blood in his lips, that Superman didn't knew was from an attack he himself did as soon as he got turned into the enemy's puppet.

Their focus on the current hopeless situation made the whole lot unable to fall into the realization that the "female sidekick" Wonder Woman had been fighting before had vanished even before the heroine had been taken out of combat.

* * *

**AMITY PARK**

**FEBRUARY 25, 19:35 EST (meaning the same starting point the previous fight.)**

**T**ucker had left to do the most logical thing he could on this situation: look for Danny. The techno geek hadn't known that the halfa had made an escape to The Zone, to prevent himself from being captured when it would have been inevitable. So, since that piece of knowledge was something he didn't have, he was now peeking into one of those bulb-seeds-thingies he had been trapped before. It took him a moment to reach to the conclusion that one didn't have his friend trapped either.

"Nope, Danny isn't here." Tucker felt like taking his beret off to pull his hair —that he couldn't actually putt given it's length. If he only had a way to communicate with the heroes he would tell them about the ecto-weapons the Fentons had on their basement. But, since they had fled dramatically before he could put in his 5 cents, and he didn't have the athletics to run to Fentonworks, nor hand the x-ray vision necessary to spot where the place it was buried under the ghostly vegetation, the only solution at hand was to get Danny to help him out. Once he did, they would need a plan. The techno geek was actually very proud he actually had thought on a decent strategy for once as he checked yet another bulb: The ship poster had light a metaphorical light-bulb by reminding him of Youngblood's last visit, that resulted in Danny having to lead the whole student body to save their parents.

What Phantom's sidekick would have never expected, as he peeked into one of the many identical bulbs, was that, while of searching for the missing friend, he would end up coming across yet another hero.

"Holy crap! Is that…?" He yelled, almost falling to his butt in surprise when his eyes fell into the Dark Night's famous mask. For a moment, he considered it being a person celebrating an early Halloween, but the chance of he being the real deal was enough to have the four-eyes use the Fenton lipstick to free the hero in one practiced move.

As soon as Batman's purple prison was cut open he fell forwards. It was also the moment he cut the plant that the surrounding greenery quivered and attacked the geek. In a mixture of luck and reflexes Tuck fell to the side, ducking the oncoming attack by an inch and yelping as it left a hole in the bit of concrete he had been standing on; sadly, once on the floor, there was no longer room to dodge anymore, for there were too many smaller vines on the floor. Raising his arms to his face and closing his eyes the African-American teen waited for the impact. Impact that never came. Opening his eyes doubtfully towards the electric-saw-like sound that had come out of nowhere, he could now see Batman, whose long gloves had morphed into rolling knives that turned the vines into kebab.

"Erm… thanks?" Tucker let out, heart racing, before letting out a relieved gush-noise. "I thought I was a goner."

Gotham's hero looked at him with a non-expression, then asked in a cold voice, "What's going on here!"

"Well, for once I freed you," Tucker began, raising one finger. "Then, well… you already know the rest."

Batman's eyes narrowed dangerously behind his mask.

Noticing the 'no-nonsense' expression of the masquerade, the geek raised both hands in a peace gesture; then proceeded to elaborate. "Superman, Wonder Woman, Flash, Green Lantern and Zatara —I think that's the name— came here and…" he as Green lantern could be seeing crashing, and Superman chasing after him "are getting their butts kicked by Undergrowth." Tucker decided to let out that Superman was under the ghost's mind-control, since it was pretty obvious given how he was currently attacking another leaguer, and flying with a green vine glued to his cranium.

"Undergrowth?" Batman inquired.

"Yeah, he wants to control the world using plants. Typical ghost stuff." Tucker waved the thing off, much to the hero's un-showed astonishment.

"Ghosts?" The hero echoed, his even, unemotional voice not betraying anything.

Before the dark-skinned teen could reply, the vines that composed the ground moved and Sam, The Garden's possessed caretaker made a flashy entrance, coming out of a reddish flower that opened up dramatically. "Hello, Tucker," Sam's voice was velvety and smooth, nothing like her usual one. Her head fell to her shoulder like a twig that had snapped, and gave out a creepy grin, her eyes glowing a bright green all the while.

"A friend of yours?" Batman questioned dryly, batarang already in hand, his position clear one of alert and readiness to attack.

"Sort off… she—"

"Is being controlled," The Dark Knight finished for him, and Tucker's eyes went wide.

"How did you—" Tucker began before figuring the greatest detective must have noticed the abnormal moves, which probably made her min-control as obvious as the Kriptonian's. "Never mind… need any help?"

With a glance to the now quiet geek, Batman simply let out a "find Robin" before leaping back to action. Tuck worried for a moment that he would harm his controlled female friend, but he shrugged it off. She had been battling Wonder Woman before, and for what he could see from his PDA she should be able to stand Batman's punches… hopefully.

Rushing to do what he was asked from the hero, the four eyes looked into the nearest purple prison. Much to his delight it was that one which had the bird-themed sidekick inside. With a movement as swift as the one he had used to free the now fighting hero —and letting out a completely unnecessary battle scream— he cut the ghostly bulb, and Robin fell forwards to his knees.

"Puagh, I feel like I ate a truck of broccoli," The twelve years old complained. Tucker felt his pain.

"Robin," Batman called out, making his young charge focus in what he should be doing in the first place —fighting crime.

Robin soon stood next to his mentor and took out a bird-a-rang of his own and they got into twin battle stances.

"Um, guys…" Tucker trailed, but his voice didn't reach the battling duo, since the metallic sound of Batman's electrical saw/gloves and Robin's childish complaint of "Why I don't have one of those?" drowned the shyly stammered words. He had wanted to warn them about a truck falling on their ways. It was unknown from where it had been thrown, but it had to be from Batman's blind spot, for he managed to avoid the peculiar car-crash only at the last second, when it had been about to crush him. It was only by sheer dumb luck that Robin had jumped to attack the enemy and gotten out of danger's way of that incident as well. The sidekick looked towards his adoptive father and his eyes widened when he saw him struggling to get his cape from behind the fallen vehicle. Had Batman's cape being made from a regular material it would have been a piece of cake to rip it; sadly, his suit was made very resistant, so it would hold some battles without worrying it getting ripped to shreds, or being burnt by the frequent explosions some of his enemies loved to cause. This durability was especially put into his mask, that was one with his cape, so he could protect his secret identity from the world at large.

He obviously didn't have any intention of taking off the cloak/mask in front of witnesses even under the danger of his ultimate demise.

"Batman!" Robin yelled and rushed to his side. He never made it too far. With a move of her leaf-covered hand several Jumanji-like plants started to attack the Boy Wonder, making him retreat a couple of steps. Batman simply gave up pulling and went to his belt, his gloved arms hitting the bat-shaped button in the middle. The garden's caretaker was about to pierce straight into the chest when the wind gushed loudly, making her turn around, and the bat-plane sent her flying to Batman's left.

"Sam!" Tucker rushed towards her limp form but was stopped by Robin. The older teen only had time to open his mouth to complain before the adult squatted next to Sam and put his now-ungloved hand to feel her pulse.

"She'll be fine," Batman assured the geek who sighed in relief. "Robin."

"Yes, sir?" He said somewhat dejectedly.

"I need you to—"

"I know, I know. Stay out of danger," The ex-acrobat mimicked the deep voice of the Dark Knight.

"Right," he agreed before raising up a rectangular devise. The electronic wasn't damaged in any way, but the screen only displayed static, making it impossible to communicate through it. Probably not even the emergency call would made it to the space with this much interference.

"I also need you to help these two out of here. Once you are all away from harm's way, contact the league." Batman threw his communicator at Robin —one of the many gadgets the teen didn't have— and walked towards the one-of-a-kind plane.

For once Robin bit the snarky comment and complain of being given the role of baby-sitter; the seriousness of the situation was getting to the younger of the group. "Wait! What about you?!" Robin asked worriedly.

"I'll buy you as much time as I can." With those flatly spoke words Batman started walking away towards the bat-plane, jumped inside and, soon, the smooth sound of the engines made it to Robin's and Tucker's ears, as their eyes were glued to the ship that slowly started to inch away from the ground, before simply shooting off towards the general direction Superman had gone to after his super-powered body recovered from the attack.

"Awesome!" Tucker breathed dumbly, making the Boy Wonder turn towards the beret-wearing teen. He would comply to his adoptive father's orders. So, squatting next to the female teen's body —that was still covered with a leaf-made attire and horns— he pulled her limp form to accommodate her on his back to give her a piggy-back ride.

Hopefully he would take the civilians to safety with no problem and then —oh, joy— contact The League.

The African-American stood up slowly and put a face that, oddly, had reluctance on it. The dark-skinned opened his mouth for a moment before closing it, and shook his head silently twice before following the birth-teemed youngster. Had Batman's charge had more time in hand, he would have dwelled on the behavior of the slightly older teen he was supposed to be protecting; however, since there was no time from such things, Robin had no other option than shrugging it off.

To be continued… right now (as a apology for being so tardy with the update).

* * *

**AMITY PARK**

**FEBRUARY 25, 20:35 EST **

The Bat-plane flew could be seeing soaring among the eerie green clouds that had started to morph… or at least it could be seeing had not Gotham's hero turn on the invisibility shield of his custom-made vehicle. The sight that could be seen from the cabin was quite foreboding, for the whole place seemed to be glowing a creepy green and none of his friend could be seeing anywhere in the small town. Frowning behind his mask, our favorite DC hero pressed one of the many, many buttons on the plane, and a rectangular piece of black-painted metal moved to reveal the plane's radar, that the detective had programmed to include a heat-vision, perfect to look for his friends amongst the vegetation. As he surveyed the beeping device, he could notice that the plant's temperature seemed to be that of a normal plant.

It took him a good 5 minutes to find 3 human-shaped, moving, red dots, that seemed to be pretty close to each other. Figuring it was something worth checking, -most likely his fellow heroes, despite the number not matching the amount of heroes Tucker said came to his rescue- the caped crusader silently landed his plane on a roof. Batman jumped quietly out of his flying vehicle and used a thick, diagonally positioned vine to slid down the building.

"Have you tried contacting the league?" Batman could hear Flash voice from the shadows.

"For the last time, yes." Zatara's voice sounded very tired.

It had been obvious that the 3 dots had been heroes, and he figured the 3 others were probably taken out by the enemy since, as the civilian teen pointed out they were "getting their butts kicked" by the enemy he now knew as Undergrowth, a "ghost" who wanted to take over the world with plants. Batman glanced at Superman sitting on a rock that had been pushed up as some green root had dug their way down to the town's sewers, however, his attention shifted again to the two more conversational ones.

"I know you tried with the communicator, but did you try using a spell?" Flash pushed, and Batman noticed that the speedster was flopped on the ground with a battered uniform. To be perfectly honest, Batman could have made his presence know to his friends, but years of hiding in the shadows had taught him that you could learn a lot of a situation from listening while remaining unnoticed. Sure, he could just ask his friends since this kind of situation was completely different from those back at Gotham where he would purposely overhear a criminal or another; however, force of habit made him quietly stay put and analyze his friend's sate, more specifically Superman, who he kept staring at, after all, the enhanced hearing of the red-caped hero should have alerted him of his arrival.

"I'm so hungry," Flash broke the silence once more, making Batman realize he had been so absorbed in own mussing he had missed part of the exchange between the man with the fastest metabolism and the magician. "Think the backups would be bringing hamburgers with them?"

"I doubt so," Batman came out of the shadows, startling the three heroes, who looked back at him. Superman, looking particularly surprised mouthed a silent "Bruce", while his eyes widened in surprise.

Wally asked the new arrival how it was possible that he was free, and Zatara considered the possibility of it being an impostor, however, Batman nonchalantly walked towards the alien and placed his hand on his shoulder. "Are your powers not working properly?"

"What!?" Zatara and Flash asked at the same time worry growing for their friend, and their own. They had noticed when Superman had practically stumbled to the floor earlier, which made Zatara decide it was best to hide for the time being so all of them could physically recover and think of a strategy to fight this seemingly undefeatable enemy. However, now that Batman had pointed it out, they noticed that Superman, who they had thought was simply tired and would get better with a little rest was currently looking worse than he did right after he had come out of the plant's mind control.

"I don't feel normal," the Man of Steel admitted, "I feel like I'm growing weaker by the second. I feel powerless, like something in the atmosphere is messing with my powers."

Nodding in understanding Batman removed the hand from the blue cloth of Superman's shoulder and moved it towards his belt, raising a test-tube with a piece of something small and green glowing inside of it with goo consistency. The tiny sample he had taken from the plant seemed to have melted into an unknown substance, and Batman, who did not have the chance to analyze it before put the sleeve between his face and the sample, seeing as some numbers and lines started showing in the flexible screen on them. Some of the complex data was predictably the same as regular vegetation, but there was about a 80% of a single component that didn't match any substance he had ever encountered, however, after he pushed some little buttons. He would need to find more information about the mysterious goop when he was back at the cave, since he might be able to analyze it properly from there since, regrettably, there was a limit on how much technology you could fit in a glove, and he had decided it would be more useful to bring the gloves he used to fight against Poison Ivy the first —and only so far— time she had tried to conquer Gotham using plants.

"What did you find?" Superman inquired, and Batman shook his head.

"There is an unknown component in the ambience, probably radioactive. We should probably get you out of here for the time being."

"But what about the others?" Superman protested, "We can't leave them behind… how did you escape anyway?"

"I didn't. A kid freed me and Robin."

"Robin? You brought the kid to this place? And where is him? You didn't let him on his own did you?" Zatara's fatherly self really wanted to scold the man from such a reckless choice, but it is important to point that the magician was being unfair: nobody knew the whole thing would turn so complicated and he certainly didn't know that his fellow hero had asked him his side-kick to go on his own as a way to keep him out of the mortal peril he would be facing when fighting an enemy that was strong enough to take on so many heroes at the time.

"Hey, save the fighting for the enemy," Flash practically teleported between the both almost quarreling parties.

"Flash is right," Superman agreed. "I'm pretty sure Batman has his reasons, we should try out best to stay together until the reinforcements arrive."

"If they ever do," Batman darkly commented.

"What do you mean?" Zatara asked the bat.

"Judging for the time I activated the emergency signal until now, I can tell you must have been here for quite a while with no communications and, even if the Watchtowers systems are not running at full power yet, Manhunter should have noticed the anomalies already unless…"

"Unless what?" Flash impatiently voiced, seemingly oblivious that Batman's brain was fighting to provide him the answer to the very same question.

Something or someone was keeping the Justice League from coming to their rescue. Batman pondered for a moment if he should have just given the plane to Robin instead of leaving him stay behind on foot while taking care of a civilian… then he remembered his side-kick, who had lived most of his life in a circus, would have no way of piloting the complex vehicle. He would have to change that after they got out of this situation, even if he had to spend every day teaching his adoptive son, he would make sure Robin would become capable of driving any and all kind of vehicles as soon as he could. But, for the moment he knew he didn't need to worry about his apprentice being able to go by unnoticed by the enemy. After all, it was very well known that the night belonged to the Batman, and Robin had picked up a lot of things from him on that time.

"I don't know," Batman grudgingly admitted.

"So there are things even you don't know." Superman teased and Batman's twitched ever so slightly at the friendly banter. Nevertheless, the little smugness the comment made Batman feel vanished when, all of a sudden, the farm-boy started sweating profusely and for a moment it looked like the veins that could be seeing under the man of steel's skin had a green quality to it.

Knowing it would be for the best to get the Kriptonian out of the place as soon as possible he weighed his options: he could leave and look for help and take one of his friend with him, but that would mean abandoning the rest and Robin; he could also stay out with the others and wait for backup, but he had a definite feeling they wouldn't be making it any time soon; that left only one option, he could have one of the other heroes to drive Superman out of Amity Park and as for help —even if the signal kept on being blocked the plane could be used as a ship to go to outer space.

The only issue left was who should stay and who should leave. Both Zatara and Flah could handle planes and, even if they wouldn't know how to use half the gadgets installed on the bat-plane either should be able to make it. In the end he simply handed the keys to the plane to the speedster and had him take care of Superman; Zatara, on the other hand, stayed behind with him, since Batman considered that the tricks he might have under the sleeve should make him more useful than a fast man with a hurt leg.

Gotham's hero looked with squinted eyes as his ship —whose invisibility shield Flash didn't know how to turn on— got further away from him. Now all it was left from him to do was to ask his friend about all that had happened in his absence, so he could know what he had learnt from the enemy, and try to rescue the missing members of the team that was sent to save him.

To be continued.

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**AN:** Hi there people! I know, I know, you all hate me for leaving those questions on the end of last chapter, for making you wait, for not bringing Danny in this chapter, for being confusing, for having typos, have Undergrowth be kicking so much butt, for making Wonder Woman and Green Lantern go missing… wow, I'm quite amazed! I could actually keep going on that list. However, to make sure you don't act out of hatred and lit my house on fire I will give you 2 reasons to love me:

1. This chapter had over 4.5 k words of non-rambles.

2. Danny makes his big entrance on the next chapter (YAY!)

Next chapter has craziness on the DP style, questions be answered, mysteries added, Undergrowth shall be finally beaten, heroes rescued and, more important of all, we will have some REAL PLOT added into the mix. Look forwards to it! Also, I take the chance to thank Funkaron for his help on this chapter. I had asked this cool writer to give me an opinion on the chapter I had wrote because there was something I didn't like, but then he made sure to point out what was by pointing that Batman and Robin wouldn't left behind a civilian into such dangerous territory, so I changed the idea of having both Batman and Robin remain together, so now Robin is with Tucker… I like the way it turned after I re-did the seconf half of this chapter.

On a completely unrelated subject, I want to let you guys know that I posted another DP over, but this time with "The Rise Of The Guardians", and it's actually pretty cool if I do say so myself.

Anyway, don't forget to review! I would love some feedback on the fight at the beginning. I know it was not mind-blowing, but is the only one I have ever written… ok, maybe not the only one, but it was DEFINITELY my first superhero fight, and I need to know how to improve action scenes since this story will include more fights.

Ps. I think having people guessing on things is fun, so how about this: whoever can guess why the Justice League haven't send help for Batman's rescue team (lol), get's a sneak-peak via PM. Of course, if it's a guest I'll just have to give another reward… dunno what, but I'll think on something to give as a price if it happens (crossing the bridge when I get there and all that). See you soon ^_^


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